A Brocante in the 16th, Paris

I got excited when my cousin told me there was a scheduled brocante near her apartment the same weekend I was visiting her.

This is a roving brocante that pops up in different arrondisements every week in the spring and summer months. This particular one was in the 16th, a residential part of the city.

 upcoming schedule of the roving brocante

The things you see range from real valuable items, to real junk. But as the cliche goes, one man's junk...

A Paris trip for me is never complete without a visit to les Puces de Clignancourt and Porte de Vanves--the two permanent flea markets of Paris. And since I get my fix by just browsing, taking pictures and buying small things, I can cover both markets on Saturday. On Sunday, I have the option to go back in case I really want to buy something.

If we happen upon a brocante or a vide-grenier (an attic-clearing sale), that's an added bonus.

There are many bargains at a brocante, and my Asian haggling skills come in handy. My cousin always cringes when I ask for a much lower price. When the vendor gives it, she even feels bad for them. I have to assure her that these vendors are very sharp and have calculated, in their sleep, how much lower they can go.  She grew up in Canada, where she didn't learn any haggling skills. 

It also helps that I know my French numbers pretty well now. Once before, I asked the price of something, and in the hopes of haggling, I replied with a higher number. You should've seen the face of the vendor. Lol.

I have to keep reminding my cousin that she doesn't need more plates, but she is always drawn to them.

I used to gravitate towards all kinds of  armchairs, until I accepted the fact that I was never going to pay the shipping costs back to Manila.

I've  been eyeing a "manche a gigot" for a long, long time now. This is a sterling silver serving piece that holds the leg of a lamb while you carve it.  I've also seen it on eBay for less. 

I'm still attracted to chandeliers still, but since I installed one at home, my obsession has dissipated a little.

I usually end up buying small artwork. They make great trip souvenirs and I can always find somewhere to hang it.

Old teacups are always beautiful but I no longer buy them because I don't have any more space in the cabinet. I might upgrade my collection and get rid of those I don't love. I love this pattern.

The bargains in a brocante are usually in boxes on the floor. Old leather bound books, paintings, brass accoutrements...

I'm not too thrilled when there are new things in a flea market. Or something that says "get this look" like these mirrors below. I want these things to look old and a bit banged up, not newly minted.

My loot from this brocante? Three small, beautiful paintings!

The technique of this watercolorist is quite masterful. She focused on the upper part of the body, where she created the sharpest detail, leaving the other areas weak and almost unfinished.

This one above is not even finished!  It reminds me of my own paintings--unfinished! Unfortunately they aren't signed (Of course, they weren't finished!)

Bea was able to tear her attention from plates finally and ended up buying this small lovely oil painting above.

Here is another beautiful oil I picked up for the grand price of (drumroll please) 5 euro! Nice colors and strokes, except that it's painted on old student-grade board instead of canvass or wood. It will be beautiful framed, and it will remind me of the brocante in Paris. I found it inside an old box under a table.

After hours at the brocante, I treated B to a nice lunch of steak frites for being so patient. 

I had salmon and ended with this cafe gourmand. Delicieux!

B and B, sharing app information, as always

The next day was going to be another flea market day--Porte de Vanves and Clignancourt. Good thing B has fun scrounging around too. He bought a very nice fob watch for G, and she loves it!  Now that is what I call successful "brocanting'!

A Mirror from Betis, Pampanga

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I'm excited because I'm finally going to order my mirror from Betis Crafts, a local supplier in Pampanga. After scouring flea markets in Europe-- trying to figure out how to ship stuff home and then trying to control costs, it made sense to just look for something here.

This was my mirror post almost two years ago. Life took over and I wasn't able to focus on finding a mirror. But it's been too long, and my yearning for a mirror has not waned. Time to take action.

The province of Pampanga and its master woodcarvers deserve a whole separate post (actually they deserve a whole coffee table book, plus encyclopedia), but here is just a sampling of the mirrors they've been making for many years now.

My own great-grandfather was originally from Guagua, Pampanga,  and was a pioneer in furniture-making. The House of Puyat had a very good run and in its heyday, was supplying some of the most prestigious addresses and commercial establishments in the States, Europe and the Middle East.

 

My great-grandfather's sons and grandchildren pioneered other businesses with similar success, unfortunately the furniture business did not continue. That statement alone could sprout another coffee table book, plus encyclopedia, plus telenovela. But this is a blogpost about my mirror...

 

My childhood bedroom was filled French Provencal furniture, made of course by the House of Puyat. Our living room had upholstered Louis XVth armchairs with impeccable symmetry, and our dining table is still an original Puyat piece, but with wrought iron in its base, revealing its early-70s manufacture date.

My old bedroom furniture is dispersed in different homes and bedrooms now--because who wants a matched set, right?

When B and I were first married, he showed me the dining table in his grandmother's house--it was impressive, and it was by the House of Puyat. The long, beautifully-carved  Louis XVth dining table had 22 matching oval-back dining chairs with very fine proportions. This intrigued me because I was only familiar with Puyat furniture from the 70s onwards. This table was probably ordered in the 50s, or even earlier.

 

I turned the chairs around and on the back, I saw the curlicue-cursive House of Puyat Logo embossed on oval metal plates.  I had never seen the Puyat logo on metal plates because the furniture in my dad's house only had the updated modern logo on a sticker.

The next time I saw those chairs were a few years later after they tore down B's grandmother's house. The table went to an aunt, but the chairs appeared in my mother-in-law's house, newly upholstered and refinished. I admired the new upholstery, but mourned the loss of the patina.  But the real tragedy was when I turned over the chairs, and in the place where the oval plates once were was just a small indentation and two tiny nailholes. The metal logo plates were gone!

B doesn't even remember ever seeing the metal plates. There must be big business among unscrupulous refinishers and woodworkers of removing these original metal plates and transferring them to other furniture, passing them off as original Puyat furniture. What a shame.

But this is supposed to be a post about my mirror...

The woodworkers in Betis are supposed to be second to almost none. Just look at how how delicate they can carve Philippine hardwood. These are only their mirrors. Wait till you see their settees, armchairs and everything else.

Maybe I should go to Betis while they are carving my mirror. I would love to do a beginning, middle and "now-installed" post on it.

Some cousins are still very much connected to Pampanga--one of them an imcumbent congresswoman.  But her interests are in the field of politics and medicine (she's also a doctor), not in woodcarving and furniture. Ah, but her brother who does renovations told me he would introduce me to the woodworkers he knows. I should take him up on this.

From this variety of mirrors you can already see the range of carving Betis Crafts can do. They will even gilt-finish the mirror for me.

 I am actually breathless with excitement.

I wish I had more walls in my house to have these beautifully carved mirrors.  Channeling Versailles. Lol.

 Here below are pictures of mirrors I loved at the flea market in Paris...

And finally, this is the mirror I am having made for my living room. I think they'll be able to execute this with no problem. 

I can't wait.

Chandelier or Lustre?

I've always loved chandeliers. If I could, I would have one in every room in the house. Right now I only have one in my dining room. After moving some furniture around yesterday, I realized I could hang small one in the den and maybe in the foyer too! This one above is from the Vernaison market in Saint Ouen flea market in Paris. I'm so excited!  The hunt begins.

Mirror Mirror...

This is from the Vogue Interiors book

I'm looking for a mirror for my living room, and I want one which looks like this one above. It's gold, it's simple all around with a focal point on the top.  Infact, if I can get an old one with matching ghosts like the ones in the Paris flea market, I would love it. I'm still figuring out how to ship something like this back home, and I wonder if it is even worth it.

I almost fainted when I saw this shop. I just want one...okay, maybe two?

The ones in this shop were between 2k euro to 9k euro! Eegads. Those ghosts are expensive. How can these all be antiques--reproductions perhaps? I don't know too much about the shops in the Paris flea market and if these are real antiques or Egyptian reproductions. For all I know, they come from Pampanga? hehe.  These ones below were lower than 2k because they hadn't been restored.

I like the one in the middle

In Dalat Vietnam, they had French-looking mirrors all over the Sofitel Dalat Palace. I loved the overall ambience, but don't look too closely, because then it will scream "tacky".  It doesn't have that elegant gilt old-world look its supposed to have. There were a lot of impressionist reproductions hanging on the walls too--again, very well executed, but don't look too close.

Sofitel hallway mirror

Too gold and a bit too much with the too-curly console

The whole hotel has a French colonial theme--well, Dalat is supposed to be "Little Paris" as it was the French who discovered and developed the place in the early 1900's, the way the Americans built up Baguio for us.

In every corner and landing, there was a different mirror and console set up. This is a bit better.

I want something carved out of solid wood and gilded after. Vietnam has a lot of French influence so it's only natural for them to reproduce these things in the proper proportions. I'm sure the Pampanga woodworkers have these mirrors too, I just haven't had the time to check them out. Maybe when it's not too hot anymore, I'll make a trip there!

Love this look--the chandelier, the mirror on the left with non-matching console

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